Pollster.comis now saying Ohio has moved from “tossup” to “lean Obama”. Slate has a great flash map that shows the current status of every state. To sum up, our boy Obama is doing pretty well for himself.
What amazes me is how many formerly red states are changing to “tossup” or “lean Obama”. Colorado and New Mexico are leaning blue and the polls indicate Obama has a fighting chance in Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, and Indiana. This is quite a change and I think we have the economic crisis to thank.
I haven’t been hearing much about abortion or gay rights or flag burning lately. Ditto for affirmative action or welfare. I’ve been watching Grandpa and Caribou Barbie (apologies to Stephanie Miller) flog the same tired “Obama palls around with terrorists. Obama wants to lose the war. Obama is a black guy.”
Here’s the thing; Bill Clinton was right – it is the economy, stupid. That’s the first, last, and middle issue. Nothing clarifies the matter like an economic meltdown. We’ve had a luxury in this country for the last 30 years. We really haven’t had many major recessions. There was one in 1991-92 and look what what happend to George H.W. Bush —> gone. See ya. Wouldn’t wanna be ya.
With all this (relative) economic peace*, people have allowed themselves to be confused about what the issues actually are. The GOP teamed up with the Fundies to hide their pro-business, screw-the-worker agenda. And it worked for a very long time. 2004 was a fine example of that. For 30 years, God, Guns ‘n Gays have been the only issues.
Now it’s turned back to cash, check or charge. People are scared and pissed off. 401(k)’s are destroyed, home equity is gone, unemployment is rising. No one cares about creationism, they have to worry about making their next house payment or credit card payment, both of which will be ballooning in the coming months thanks to some very pro-business legislation.
You know what I have to say? Thank God. It’s about freaking time. People complain that Washington was asleep at the switch while this mess was brewing. Well, the electorate was as well.
*I don’t actually think the past 30 years have been good economically, but that’s the subject of another post.
